ID 10 Tiera! My name's Hardy and I'm a MORAN!
Today 2 of our most important clients are in the office for a 4 hour budget meeting. The office has been in a tizzy preparing and cleaning, and making sure everyone's stations look nice and everyone is dressed appropriately. An email went out yesterday demanding that everyone arrive 30 minutes early so that we make sure to be here when the clients show up at 9a.
I do not get frazzled when the client comes into the office. I have worked with one of the men on several occasions and we have a great relationship. Plus, he is extremely cool and easy going. I get to work by 8:30a each morning and so had no issues getting here on time. My work station is not all that clean, but I spent some time straightening things up so as to look serviceable. I avoided jeans today, to comply with the dictate "dress appropriately". So when the clients showed up this morning, I felt pretty relaxed and ready for the day.
I confidently approached our first client (who I work with frequently), let him know how great it is to see him, and I made sure he was aware of the breakfast tacos we brought in for their visit. And then I see the man he was with and I extended my hand graciously. I said, "Hello! I'm Hardy. Nice to meet you!" He replied in a dry tone, "Yes I know. We've met." The room stopped. People looked at me quizzically. I shook his hand and tried to think of the right thing to say.
ID 10 Tiera!
I looked at him closely and realized we had, in fact, met. We met my first week on the job back in February where I was taken to a regional meeting of 20 something people sitting around a large conference room table at our client's headquarters. At the time he wore a suit, had glasses and no facial hair to speak of. Today he wore jeans and a short sleeve, black button up untucked. His hair was completely slicked back and he has a fully grown beard and mustache combo. And he was not wearing glasses!
So here's the thing: I definitely messed up. The entire office witnessed it, and on the surface it looks like I don't even know who I work for. However, when you look at this thing realistically, this situation is completely understandable and should not look unfavorably upon me. I mean, I met him on my first week with 20 other people that I have not seen again since that day. And on that day I had zero interaction with these people. I sat in the back of the room, watched an hour long meeting, and then left. And then this guy goes completely undercover, complete with beard and rock star shirt for his visit to our office!
It isn't that big of a deal, really...I just hate that in front of my boss and several other high ups at the agency I look like a complete ID 10 Tiera, like I don't know who pays our bills.
Unfortunately, the world we live in is not based much on reality. Instead, perception seems to hold more importance. And my "perception" took a sizable hit this morning.
Oh well. Really the worst thing that can happen is the two clients can leave our office today and accurately claim, "His name's Hardy and he's a MORAN!"
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